She-Hulk S01E02 Review: Attorney For HIre

She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, Season 1, Episode 2: Superhuman Law

Where the previous episode focused more on She-Hulk's origin story and Bruce giving him a whole lot of warning about living as a Hulk, this one dives more into how Jen's very public transformation into the She-Hulk in the midst of a courtroom ends up fucking up her life. She goes from "attorney at law" to "attorney for hire" which even the logo jokes about, and... well, it's not a good day for Jen. She loses her job because of how everyone now sees her as 'She-Hulk' first and a lawyer second (the exact opposite of what she insists when she addresses the audience in her pilot episode) and, obviously, the media stuck her with the questionable moniker of She-Hulk.

And... this episode is kind of a breezy one, and it kind of jumps from one comedic scene to the next. I did find this episode to be more or less refreshing since the jokes are more... character-based, I guess. References to last episode's dissection on how Jen can hold her liquor as She-Hulk but not as Jen -- leading to the hilarious scene where she gets fired. There's that 'omg my embarrassing family' sequence as she goes to meet her parents, which has that nice sort of lived-in feel as they just launch into diatribes where different members of the family insist on knowing or wanting to tell different things. 

And then there's the bits where it's genuinely nicely acted. Jen's frustrated rant to Nikki about how she's basically being punished for doing the right thing of saving the jury from Titania's rampage; or her brief heart-to-heart with her dad in the garage. Even the brief moment where Jen checks in with Bruce (who gets put on a space-bus out of the show) and has a motor-mouth moment about taking the Abomination case is realized very well, highlighting both Jen's independence (she's going to take the case regardless of Bruce's blessing) and her kindheartedness (her motor-mouth tells us that she's actually nervous about insulting Bruce with taking the case). 

Which, I guess, brings us to the main story for this episode and the next... the trial of one Emil Blonsky, a.k.a. the Abomination. Now admittedly they've severely rewritten Abomination's character since the 2008 movie where Abomination debuted. I just rewatched The Incredible Hulk last year, though, so I do have the benefit of remembering the movie a bit more freshly, and Emil was a consummate, borderline-psychotic killer. It has been almost two decades in-universe, and, well, to be fair, Emil was following orders. Some really great acting moments from Tim Roth, who plays Emil as someone who's kind of trying to act rather badly to fit with the narrative of someone who deserves a parole because he was a victim of a superhuman act during the early days of superhumans being in the public eye. He's kind of a weasel, but you can sympathize with him when you realize that Emil was just following orders and there's probably some part of him that thought he could be the next Captain America. 

Jen needs to take this case because that's the only lawyer job that wants to hire her... to have a superhuman lawyer to represent superhumans. Which means she has to show up to work as She-Hulk, in addition to taking the Abomination case. Again, some really great moments of acting on Jen's part as she goes from frustration to joy to confusion as she originally refuses to take the Emil case. 

Again, a lot of what makes the whole episode work is Tim Roth's acting. And sure, the writing for Emil is absolutely comedic, but... it somehow works? It does manage to garner enough sympathy from the audience and from Jen, while still leaving room for any twists to convincingly crop up later in the series. 

...and, of course, the big wrinkle and cliffhanger at the end of the episode is the revelation that, yeah, Abomination had that whole cage-match in Shang-Chi a couple years back. Oops!

While Jen and the pre-existing MCU characters have been pretty fun, the rest of her supporting cast are... just kind of there. Nikki so far is literally just there so Jen has someone else to talk to. Bukowski is cartoonishly entertaining at how over-the-top sexist he is, which I guess fits the tone of the show? Jen's first boss is a non-entity, I did actually like the very well-realized scene where he tells She-Hulk to shrink down to her regular size because it's obvious that he feels intimidated by her.

Holden Holloway is probably the supporting cast that's the most interesting, but that's by virtue of being a consummate professional who's a dick enough to pull the move that cost Jen her job, but also smart enough to hire her. By dint of his character archetype, though, Holloway isn't particularly likable or memorable. We also get introduced to an overly-friendly guy called Pug, who is part of Jen and Nikki's team. 

Anyway, again, I'm not someone who cares about law dramas, but the situation with superhumans is admittedly interesting enough to get me to pay attention. And if anything else, Emil's return is surprisingly light-hearted and fun that this episode is a breeze to go thorugh. The comedy doesn't always land for me, admittedly, but I feel like maybe the detractors are being unfairly harsh on this one. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• The Abomination's cage fight against Wong in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is shown verbatim as evidence against Emil's parole. 
• On the side of the website where Jennifer is looking for jobs are two Easter Eggs:
• The first is a news about a man with metal claws fighting in a bar brawl, seemingly a reference to Wolverine's iconic first live-action scene in X-Men. 
• The second is a question why there's a huge man sticking out of the Earth, a nod to Tiamut's state after the climax of Eternals.
• Bruce noting that he's a "different person back then, literally", is a sly nod to how during the events of Incredible Hulk, Bruce Banner was played by a different actor in that movie. It fits in-universe as a nod to how he was angry rage-Hulk in that period of time, but She-Hulk looks at the camera to confirm the meta joke to the audience. 
• Damage Control first got introduced in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and has had antagonistic roles in Spider-Man: No Way Home and Ms. Marvel. 
• Hawkeye gets mentioned by one of Jen's relatives, who wonders if he collects his arrows after he's done with them.